The present invention relates to a plant for manufacturing structural components made of a thermoplastic, especially for motor vehicles.
The Applicant has already described, in document FR-A-2 734 199, a plant of this type which includes means for the continuous production of a thermoplastic dough, means for the accumulation and temporary storage of the dough produced and means for the removal of the dough from the accumulation and temporary storage means and for the introduction of this removed dough into a component-forming mold, these removal means comprising thermoregulated means in the form of a syringe having at least one dough charging/discharging orifice.
These thermoregulated means in the form of a syringe are carried by handling means and can move between a dough-charging first position, in which the dough charging/discharging orifice of the means in the form of a syringe is connected to the outlet of the dough accumulation and temporary storage means in order to allow transfer of the dough from these accumulation and temporary storage means into these means in the form of a syringe, and a second position for introducing the dough with which these means have been charged into the component-forming mold.
However, such a plant may be relatively difficult to use when it is desired to inject the dough under high pressure into the mold.
This is because problems may then arise of how to couple the thermoregulated means in the form of a syringe, on the one hand, to the outlet of the dough accumulation and temporary storage means and, on the other hand, to the mold.
Moreover, it is also necessary for the thermoregulated means in the form of a syringe to be combined with high-pressure actuation means, thereby increasing the weight and overall size and making it difficult for them to be moved between the charging and introduction positions.
It is therefore an object of the invention to solve these problems.
For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a plant for manufacturing structural components made of a thermoplastic, especially for motor vehicles, comprising means for the continuous production of a thermoplastic dough, means for the accumulation and temporary storage of the dough produced and means for the removal of the dough from the accumulation and temporary storage means and for the introduction of this removed dough into a first component-forming mold, comprising thermoregulated means in the form of a syringe having at least one dough charging/discharging orifice, these being carried by handling means and being able to move between a dough-charging first position, in which the dough charging/discharging orifice of the means in the form of a syringe is connected to the outlet of the dough accumulation and temporary storage means in order to allow transfer of the dough from these accumulation and temporary storage means into the means in the form of a syringe, and a second position for introducing the dough with which these means have been charged into the first mold, characterized in that the outlet of the accumulation and storage means has a directional control device which has at least two outlets and can be controlled so as to deliver the dough to one or other of them, one of the outlets being designed to be coupled to the charging/discharging orifice of the thermoregulated means in the form of a syringe and the other outlet being designed to be coupled permanently to the charging orifice of a ram for injecting dough under high pressure into a second component-forming mold, an outlet orifice of which is designed to be coupled permanently to this second mold